Topic: Making Nia more alive
When reading this point "Oh and I think mobs roaming a giant circle is meh...id like to see static robot factories with defenses and static mobs, then NPC resource supply depots, also guarded, and caravans going too and from..." by Stranger Danger I realised the large improvement such change could potentially add to perpetuum!
Let's admit it, NPC's here are like shooting practice that drop stuff.
Alpha Orange: Mindles chckens, Stay there waiting to be killed (good entry level farming for newbies)
Alpha red: Angry birds, Will chase you around and do not drop aggro if you stop aggressing (god for people like 2 months into the game)
Beta reds: Meaner angry birds that like to protect their territory (good for vets but apparently very few farm beta npcs, could be a problem with game mechanics)
Gamma reds + observers: These are mean machines that actually patrol their islands and hunt you down swiftly. These are like cops for the npc corporations. (good for the vets and all that)
Main point being, they just do that, they either standby or they walk around in predef circles. <- Problem
Now what if these nians live on their islands exactly as we do, Some things they can do for example;
1) They can start docking/undocling into terminals like we do all the time. (could be just eye candy)
2) They can engage each other every now and then (like green bots fighting yellow bots when they get close)
3) They can start mining! There are industrial bots scattered around but they do not mine. MAke them mine like we do, and players can kill their mining op and take the minerals from their field container. OFC make it that they have protection squads around so players team up together to kill the lot.
4) MAke them go around looking for artifacts in beta islands. Once they find one they loot the can and go quickly to ICSBeta for example and players can follow them around till they see them looting the can and then kill them. Another real player could be watching it all and kill the other player etc.
5) Make NPC fortresses and the further out from the fortress the lower tiered npc's patrolling the perimerter. (For example at the fortress HQ, a mighty npc would guard the stash but to get there you have to go through t1, t2, t3, t4.... mobs.
6) Make npc's caravans that move stuff from one fortress to the other. Npc caravans can start small(sequer + 3 assaults) and progressively increase if they are not killed (could be on a daily / sap timer sortof) so players can either chose to kill them at the start for little loot, or wait it out for a chance to the bigger bounty.
My point is, not every player is coming with and eve background and is used to spin their ship for maximum eye candy. Other mmo's out there create a living and breathing word by having npc's going around their business and it helps make the game looks more populated when les ppl are online.
Apart from this, keep up the good work with steam etc.